breakfast at murrayfield

Right after the game at Murrayfield, but even before that, it was pretty clear to me something drastic has to be done for the Italian team on a technical front — if it ain’t broken don’t fix it, or so the saying goes, but if it is actually broken, well, maybe it’s about time to do something and repair what’s broken. That is just plain obvious.

But of course, instead of thinking what’s wrong within the squad, Italian rugby fans put the stress on how their poor (non existent, more like) results so far are all due to a psychological issue for Italian ruggers, because of course the ref was biased, and on how Scotland was “mediocre” anyway.

Yep, sure — so mediocre in fact that they did beat Azzurri 26-6.

I was there, and saw how they played — if Scotland was “mediocre” and we’re setting a measurement scale on that “mediocrity”, then I’m afraid Italy can’t be measured at all, as they didn’t even show up on the pitch, those guys wearing light blue outfits only had the resembling shape of ruggers (some of them not even the shape, I must add…), but didn’t behave like ones.

As for the “state of mind” reference, I refuse to talk about it when referred to athletes more focused on appearance than on sport.

The Scottish scrum was sound and steady (btw: God bless Euan Murray!) while the Italian pack was… er… it wasn’t “packed”. They either make it disrupt or rotate — showing they have no clue of what a scrum should do: push forward. And, since we’re talking about basics, how about learning and pass the ball backward? I could count at least a dozen forward passes by the Italians, then I stopped counting ’cause that was getting on my nerves. So it’s not the ref who’s biased, it’s them who don’t play according to the rules.

They were overall inconsistent and sooo not there, yet in the end rugby fans think it’s the ref’s fault, it’s the state of mind and it’s the Scots who were mediocre.

Of course.

Before that, they also thought the English were lame, and the Irish were below average… Apart from the fact that dissing the opponents screams OMG RUGBY FAIL!!!!11!one! from whatever perspective one might happen to look at it, truth is the Azzurri didn’t show up against England either, nor they did show up against Ireland (to the extent that Irish ruggers looked extremely bored to be there at Stadio Flaminio playing against them. And I could perfectly see their point as I got awfully bored myself looking at them pretending to play proper rugby.), and, as a matter of fact, I’d be really surprised — in a good way! — if they’d show up against Wales or France.

Face the truth — it does hurt, doesn’t it?

So, this is a message to the squad: do you want me (or anybody else) to take you seriously as rugby players?

Fine.

Then stop thinking about calendars and fashion ads and your hairdos and facial hair — just pull your darn socks up and start playing rugby.

Chin up — you may happen to lose, but at least with some dignity — and some self-criticism might come in handy, too.

It’s as simple as that.